Thursday, May 19, 2016

Killing Indians

In the book, Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Mr. P states "If you stay on this rez, they're going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. We're all going to kill you" (Alexie 43). I think he is trying to tell Arnold that like before, when teachers and administration beat Indians for referring to and practicing their culture, this will happen again. Maybe not so violently, but mentally it will. White people are going to kill the Indian culture, and by doing that, they will kill an Indians soul. Mr. P sees a bright future for Arnold and he doesn't want him to become broken. All Arnold's life he has been fighting. Someone that young can only fight for so long. If Arnold doesn't leave the rez soon, he will give up; his soul will be stripped away and the only thing left will be an empty shell of a 14 year old.